Lessons in the weeds

I've not posted any garden pictures this year. In fact, I haven't even taken any.

Last year, and the year before in the apartment, I was so excited at each new development- each bud and sprout. This year, I don't even notice each bud and sprout- it's all I can do to keep the weeds from being taller than any of the sprouts! Have I been successful? Um, not really.

A couple weeks ago, I was getting really frustrated with it all. All these weeds, all this work, and nothing to show for it. All that I had harvested had popped up on its own- herbs, raspberries, some flowers, and not much else. Is this going to be worth it? Was I just lucky last year? Am I a huge gardening failure?

Right before church Saturday, a friend started asking me about my garden. I had harvested some peas last week, and a couple heads of broccoli. She commented all her plants seemed small and late. I told her my tomatoes were about "this high" bending down, putting my hand about mid-shin height. She laughed and said that's where hers were too, and now she didn't feel as bad. The conversation made me feel better, too.

During church, I kept thinking about it. The weed problem I'm blaming on myself- after last year's garlic was harvested, I didn't have a plan for that space, and weeds grew up quickly, causing there to be lots of weed seeds in the garden soil this year. I did my best to get crop seeds started on time, but I was late with many of them. And then the lesson in all this hit me:

I don't make things grow.


God makes things grow. 


Nothing in my power can make it rain (or, in the case of this spring, stop raining) or make the sun shine, or make the bugs come or go, or make the weeds come or go.


I can do my best to keep the beds clear, to plants seeds in their season, to plan and diagram the garden, but in the end, I have no power to make things grow.

These revelations are significant to me. Just like Jonah, who loved the vine that grew up and gave him shade, then cursed God when it went away, God made the point to me: You did nothing to make these things grow. I give and take away. What is it to you?


I'm also reminded of Jesus' parable of the wheat and weeds- the wheat and weeds must grow together, for when the weeds are pulled up, the good wheat may be, too. There are beds in my garden that are like this- dense grass is growing among the carrots, and pulling up the grass would pull up the crop, too- and, with carrots, the roots are obviously very important.

I am reminded of the weeds in my life- the hurts or sin that cannot be extracted without pulling out other parts of who I am. I know that the weeds in my life may stem from seeds embedded from another season of life. I know that I can try to keep weeds under control under my own power, and try my hardest to grow- but only God can redeem me, and only God can grow me. I am powerless on my own.

Rain is a blessing and a curse- it provides a resource to make both the good and bad things in the garden grow. In an untended or neglected garden, the bad stuff grows up quickly under much rain, and the good stuff gets choked out. In a well tended garden (which is very hard to do with lots of rain!), the good stuff flourishes.

Isn't it that way with people, too? When a person is given lots of resources, it can be either a blessing or a curse. Untended, the bad stuff in their life can grow up under the "blessing" of riches, while, when carefully managed, the extra resources can help a person flourish- but this is harder to accomplish!

And then, the harvest. I've been disappointed in the harvest so far, but looking back at the pictures of last year's garden, I'm reminded that the harvest season will come- soon!- we're just not there yet. I will get to see  and taste the fruits of my labor- in season- even though right now all it feels like is labor.

The work will pay off. The miracle of dirt-and-sunshine-and-water-into-food will come about. And all the credit will be God's, because I certainly haven't done anything miraculous.

On Doing It All

I'm blogging about (Not) Doing It All over at Homemakers Who Work today. Hop over and say hi!

Why Peek?

For the past four months, I've been using a little device called a Peek. You've not heard of it?! Let me fill you in:

• A Peek is an email device. That's it.
  

Can I make phone calls? No.
Can I surf the web? No.
Can I play music with it? No.
Can it take pictures? No.
Can I do ANYTHING besides email? Well, sort of. But, no.

I can receive email on my Peek. I can do anything that is email-powered from my Peek. Which means I can use the twittermail service to post to twitter. I can set up an email address to send my blog posts to so that they'll automagically post (Like I'm doing with this one!). There are services I can email that will reply with a weather report. To be fair, Peek has a built-in the ability to text message cell phones, but before they did, there were email addresses that could be used for that sort of thing.

So, if all I can do is email, why would I want one of these?

• I may want one if I'm afraid of technology. Got a Grandpa who can use a cell phone, but turning on a computer and starting up email is too much for him? The Peek is seriously easy to use, so is a great gift for technophobes. It provides a way to stay connected with, seriously, two buttons and a scroll wheel to figure out. I appreciate the really simple, well-designed interface.
  
• I may want one if I want portable email, but don't want a smartphone. Maybe I don't have a cell phone. Maybe I like those phones where it's simple to actually make a phone call- and I don't care to type out emails on the numerical keypad. Maybe there are times I want to be reachable by phone but not email (or vice versa)
• I may want one if I like gadgets. Because, really, this is a simple, durable, well-designed gadget.
  

While I DO get starry-eyed over gadgets, I fall into the second category. I really like being able to be responsive to email and keep abreast of friend and family news without turning a computer on all weekend. (And, often, I don't turn on a computer all weekend) Not long after getting the Peek, we went on a vacation to Hawaii, and I didn't want to be bothered by my cell phone, but could respond at my leisure to emails that came in. Really, my friends and family will tell you, I'm pretty averse to talking on the phone. I much prefer the written word to stay in touch. Hence this blog. And hence the Peek.

The second reason I like my Peek is sillier- over and over, Josh has told me "Stop taking the laptop into the kitchen when you're cooking. You're getting the keys gunky. You're going to spill something on it." I tell him I NEED the laptop in the kitchen, because that's where the recipe is! Why waste paper on a one-time recipe? But he is right- I got a crumb stuck under the T key, which made typing anything hard for a while. Now? I email recipes to myself, and the Peek, with its rubber-coated keyboard, is durable and not threatened by my messy baking adventure. I doubt this reason will appeal to everyone, but it works for me!

The Peek retails starting at $20 (the price down from a recent $90!), and service starts at $15 a month. I think the concept would really take off at a $7-$10/month service charge, and the $15-$20 is harder for people to justify, especially since data can be added to cell plans for that price and provide email plus web browsing. Peek claims the device saves you money, but I think the math is a little fuzzy.

All in all, I'm very glad for the use I've gotten out of my Peek so far, but I see that it has limited appeal as a one-task device. It's not for everyone. So far, it's worked for me- to the point it may replace my cell phone. And, it sure is cute!

--------
Sent on the go from my Peek*

*And then edited in Blogger for formatting and to add links.

** This is NOT a paid review- I just get asked fairly often what I think of the thing, so I wanted to get it out there. For disclosure, I did win the device back in February, so I didn't buy it myself.

Meeting someone new!

I'd like to introduce you to someone -  I met someone new this weekend! Someone REALLY new. To the tune of less-than-48-hours-old New. I met this new person with my camera, and had my first newborn photo shoot at the home of my friends Beth and Josh!

Introducing Levi:







For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well. - Psalms 139:13-14


Check out that nose, and those fingers, sleeping in his daddy's arms. So irresistible!


He was born early-early Saturday morning to The Natural Mommy- pop over to her site to pass on congratulations!

Beth & Baby:

Links today

• Local groups are protesting Indianapolis CVS stores for selling expired medicines. Other local groups are protesting the lack of Free-after-ECB deals. (Just kidding!)
• Once upon a time, Google's annual April Fool's joke was Google Paper- claiming to snail-mail your emails for free. Apparently someone thought this was a viable business model (albeit not for free). Meet Sunnygram.
• Lately, I've been weighing the pros and cons of getting a Kindle. Slate explains why an old-fashioned newspaper is better.
• On the way back from Georgia we passed two semis packed full with chickens off to slaughter. Seeing them stacked high in the little cages made me thankful for my opportunity to meet & eat "happy chickens". Here's an analysis of the chicken industry.

The Hail Story

Two weeks ago Tuesday, there was a hail storm in the Indianapolis area. While our house barely even got rain, neighborhoods south of us got pounded with baseball-sized hail. Josh's commute that day took him right through the hailstorm- he was helplessly stuck in traffic as our 2004 Civic was dented all over. Thankfully, he got home safely, but the damage to the car was poorly timed, since we were leaving for Georgia early Thursday morning. Josh called the insurance company as soon as he got home, and they instructed us to go to a local dealership for an estimate of the damage.

At the end of Wednesday, with a million other things I had to do to get ready for leaving the next day, I go to the prescribed dealership and, go figure, they're busy and can't check out our car that day. I was annoyed they didn't let us make an appointment ahead of time (Josh specifically asked) and Josh was annoyed we couldn't get this taken care of before leaving for five days. But, alas, we had to leave our poor, damaged car at home.

While we're on our trip, Josh gets a call instructing him that the hail storm caused enough damage to be considered a "catastrophe," so our insurance company was setting up tents to do their own estimation, and we needed to report to one of those. During his lunch break Wednesday, Josh took the Civic to the tent. I sent him an email after lunchtime saying, "how's the car?" and he replied with "Damage = very yes" - which I got during a very serious meeting, and almost burst out laughing. That's what I get for bringing my Peek into a meeting, I guess.

I finally got a longer version of the estimate. There was enough damage on the top, hood and trunk of the car to warrant replacing them, plus dents that had to be popped out on every body panel of the car, plus some trim pieces. The insurance company handed Josh a check on the spot for the repair costs, and coincidentally, by our figuring, it came to $100 shy of the 70% value of the car (at which it would be totaled).

So, a week ago, we had a $5,000 check, a damaged car, and some decisions to make. Did we want to put so much money into a car just to improve its appearance? Did we want to drive a dented car and save the money? Even if we fixed the dents, would some still rust, giving us more headaches down the road? We wanted to explore our options, so, that night, we went to a couple dealerships to see what we could get in trade-in for the car, and had our eye on a car we've wanted fro a while- a station wagon.

Long story short, we ended up coming home Wednesday night without our dented Civic, and with a new-to-us car, a Volvo station wagon. The cost of the new car? The insurance check + our deductible + the damaged Civic's trade-in value + sales tax. When figuring out a target price, we forgot to take into account sales tax, but it really turned out alright in the end. And I LOVE the new car. Which will be MINE tomorrow when I start driving it to work. (Josh drove it for a week to make sure everything was OK with it. I'm oblivious to stuff like that) This is easily the nicest car I've ever owned, with leather seats and windshield wipers on the headlights and power everything. I'm in awe.

As was pointed out by a friend, this is the first time in my life (excepting a couple years from about ages 5-8) when I or my family didn't own a Civic. The end of an era.


I didn't take this picture, but ours looks exactly like this- same year, color, etc. Josh doesn't like the color, but I do.

Meet & Greet: My Family

Mostly because of proximity, I post lots more pictures of Josh's family on here. There's a whole bunch of them that live just half an hour from us, and the rest live about 6 hours away. My extended family, on the other hand, all live 10-14 hours away, so we see them much less frequently.

The occasion to see almost all of my mom's side of the family came up when we went to visit Georgia for my granddad's 80th birthday. Let me introduce you! Also, see my grandparents' awesome house (well, mostly the awesome porch.)

My cousins with my grandparents:


My grandparents and their kids:

This photo warms my heart, since this is the first time in my memory I've seen all of them together. Yay!

My grandparents, their kids and spouses:


My grandparents, Josh & I:

I really prefer to be behind the camera...

Furry members of the family: My aunt & uncle's dogs who traveled with them from Texas, with their "papa":


See the rest of the pictures of the trip here! Check out the pictures of the Big Reveal of the 80th birthday gift! Was it certified diamonds? a new car? a cruise? You'll have to see the album to find out!

Also, check out The Natural Mommy's Meet & Greet Monday! Potentially the last version featuring only 2 kids!

A free weekend!

I've actually got a free weekend! What does a free weekend look like for me?

Friday night:

• Took a nap as soon as I got home from work... it was a long week. Even though it was technically a short week- I had Monday & Tuesday morning off.
• Made fettuccine alfredo for dinner.
• Weeded the garden.
• Got 2 loads of laundry done Friday night.
• Went on a date to Chick-fil-a for a sweet tea, then drove around in our new car with Josh (More on the new car later!)
  

Saturday:

• Got up at 6am to let the dog out, get another load of laundry started, sweep the floors
• Went back to bed & got up at 9
• Went out for a brunch
• Got home and weeded, weeded, weeded some more
• Discovered a tree full of ripe mulberries and picked as many as I could reach with my kitchen stepladder.
• Tonight, we plan on going to church, swinging by to drop off stuff with my brother-in-law in Lebanon, then going to the drive-in theater.
  

Sunday? Who knows! Cleaning the house is on the agenda, and possibly more weeding. Also considering making goodies for work to celebrate our release day. Peaches and mulberries will probably be involved in those goodies.


I've got a post up at Homemakers Who Work today discussing what I don't have time for- TV!

Grandma & Grandpa's House

I love it.

Returning Home

Coming home after being away for a little while isn't easy. I mean, getting back into the groove of work is one thing, but then there's everything else:

• The fridge is empty since we didn't want food going bad while we were gone. We just spent an entire vacation eating out, and then there's nothing to fix at home, either. Last night's dinner: Skyline Chili, while we were out grocery shopping.
• I'm freaking out about the garden. The plants look healthy enough, but the weeds look even better, and they got way out of hand while we were gone. It's embarrassing- I want to spend two solid days weeding to catch up. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of time, and it's raining. Peas and lettuce need to be harvested, on top of the weeding that very badly needs to be done.
• And then there's mowing. Luckily, the yard doesn't look a LOT worse than the neighbors, but it still needs to be mowed.
• Laundry's always a concern when we get back from trips. If I was on top of things before we left, there won't be dirty clothes waiting at home, but all the clothes we packed need to be washed, and it throws my laundry routine off. (Laundry routine = 3 loads, washed and dried Friday night/Saturday morning)
• Then there's the non-work, non-home activities: Josh skipped his piano lessons this week, but I still have the church library to take care of. We didn't meet with our bible study group this week, but they'll probably all be back at our house Monday, which means I need to have all of the above (well, most of the above) done before then, and I may be making dessert for them too- I haven't heard yet. Getting all this done by Monday shouldn't be too much of a challenge since we have a free weekend, but it is still in the back of my mind.

Is the coming-home hecticness just me, or do you experience it, too? How do you juggle it all?

I'm Back!

Betcha didn't even notice I was gone!

We took a trip with my parents to southern Georgia, where I have family, to celebrate my granddad's 80th birthday! As soon as I get the pictures off the camera, I'll share stories our family get-together. Without illustrations, the stories just aren't as cool.

Anything exciting happen while I was gone?

Dreams of Lovers

We went to the movies this weekend!

Theater movies are a treat for us, so the fact that we went to see two movies in two days was unbelievable. Last Thursday, we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary almost a week early, went to a nice dinner, and went to see Star Trek for a second time. Yes, we're geeks. Liked it just as much the second time around.

Friday night, we had friends call us to go to Up, the Pixar movie that just opened. Even though we had just gone to a movie the night before, I was intrigued by the movie- and, really, there are very few Pixar movies I don't like- so we agreed to join them. I was glad we did.

You know how Wall-E is about a trash-collecting robot who falls in love with a space robot, but really it's about a bigger story of consumerism and self-centeredness and something bigger than the story being told? That's how I felt with Up. It's about an old man and a Boy Scout and a floating house- but it's not. It's bigger than that. You know there's masterful storytelling going on when, in the first 20 minutes of the film, I've had to concentrate to hold back tears 3 times- and I don't cry at movies, ever. The backstory that preceded the house-flying adventure was mostly told without words, and was beautiful. The most believable thing in the entire movie (because flying houses and talking dogs and giant rainbow-colored birds aren't exactly believable) is the love and passion and dreams shared between Carl and Ellie, the elderly couple. The whole movie is about Carl living out the dream he and his late wife shared- something I can deeply relate to, as my husband and I are only 3 years into our journey together, and we have an "Adventure Book" of sorts- dreams we talk of wanting to achieve someday- and doing it together.

In the end (I don't think this is too much of a spoiler), Carl discovers that all the dreams and plans he and his wife made were exciting, but the real adventure was just living a beautiful, full life together, day-to-day, and being passionately in love.

On my anniversary today, this is what is in my Adventure Book- living in the moment (but not for the moment) with the love of my life- dreaming of the future, but not being impatient for it to come and missing out on what's in front of me, in the here and now. We're only in each stage of life for a time, and I want to get as much out of this stage as I can, before it is fleeting and gone. Our future dreams may come true, and may not- the real dream is loving and being loved every day.


Three years ago, we looked so much younger! Wow.

At the park

Last weekend, I spent three hours at the park with my nephews Kevin and Kaden. I was already exhausted from the day, but walking and spending quality time with them was so worth it. Biggest thing I learned: Little boys climb everything.

Photographic proof of the climbing:









Other activities included drawing with chalk. Here, Kevin drew himself, then his little brother Kaden, then Aunt Joanna, who is taller than either of them, but has a very short body thanks to the crack in the sidewalk getting in the way:


I was taking all these pictures, so they each wanted to get in on the action, and take a picture of their brother & me:



I'll give then holding-the-camera-straight lessons later- it's kinda big and heavy for little hands!

We ended the day with swinging and, as boys do, jumping-off-swings before dancing, literally, all the way home. Great, great day.


Disclaimer: The one with the I'm A Big Brother shirt on is actually the little brother. As far as I understand it, there are no immediate plans for him to be a big brother, but the shirt is a hand-me-down that happens to have a confusing message on it.